woodworking - Hands On Books

My First Woodworking Class with Young Children

It was the most meaningful, fun, and interesting woodworking I’d ever done.

Amanda’s Woodworking Gift

Every time I see that little car, or think about it, I remember it was Amanda who made me realize how much kids love to make presents.

Summer Woodworking with Kids Class

This post has pictures of the shop and description of how I organized a class of 10 kids. In the morning it was 6-8 year olds and in the afternoon it was 8-12 year olds.

Five Projects to Help Kids Learn the Craft of Nailing

Looking back at the first year I taught woodworking two mistakes were making projects too difficult and assuming kids could use tools. Wrong. Most kids had never picked up a tool, and the ones who had really didn’t know how to use them. Nailing is a perfect example.

BUILDER BOARDS Hit the Road

The last 3 summers my mega set of Builder Boards went to farmers markets, fundraisers for preschools and a Children’s museum, a Royal Family Kids Camp, a Children’s Art Festival, a neighborhood party, the Boys and Girls club, Camp Side-by-Side,

Woodshop Safety

…… experience taught me that even very young children can be trusted to use real tools. Fifteen years of woodworking with kids has confirmed this initial experience.

It’s not much, but it’s a NUF!

When my cousin Carl’s daughter was little he designed a 30 pound boat built from one sheet of 10 foot plywood and two 10 foot fir 1 X 4s. It was a clever design meant to get kids out on the water under their own power. I built two of these boats, one for each...

A Two Year Old Plays with Builder Boards

When my grandson Lucas, was two years old he wanted to go out to my shop. It seemed to me like there wasn’t much for him to do out there but I took him anyway. The last time I’d been in the shop I had been working on a set of Builder Boards so there was a...

Kids at Work, three short videos

Kids at work

Woodworking: Lowly Key Fob Unlocks Big Rewards

As you can see the simple key fob is not so simple from a 4 or 5 year old perspective.

Builder Boards as an Eagle Scout Project

Boards ready for notching. The pattern for 10 notch, 6 notch, and 4 notch boards are on top of the proper length boards.

Some Other Things I Built

I had never built a log building before, let alone with eighth graders, but my supervisor said, no problem. He had a design and we worked out details each morning before the kids got there. No one was more surprised than I it worked so well.

Builder Board Update: New Roof System

The new way to hold the roof boards on requires no hook and loop fastener….and keeps the kids from knocking them off from the inside of the house.

A Dollhouse from a Recycled Drawer

My wife got the idea to build a doll house for our grandkids and got a big drawer from the restore.

Builder Boards……24 Years Later

Recently a teacher friend completed a set with her class of sixth graders and told me an amusing story about teaching practical math. She divided the class into groups, gave each group a board and the plans, and told them to draw the position of the notches on the board. Of course, each group had the notches in a different position so….. they had to figure out which plan was right.

Free Plans: The Rope Machine

“Dad made a rope machine for me when I was a kid. He used coat hangers for the hooks.”. The following instructions detail how to build this rope machine patterned after the 1950s model built by my father for his son, in the spirit of the times, from materials around the house.